DEFENDING PELOSI: There was a ton of negative feedback in response to my post about Nancy Pelosi yesterday. In part, I owe credit for that to Andrew Sullivan, who provided a positive link to my comments. Of course, Andrew has a bipartisan readership, so that meant that lots of critical readers with a center-left bent headed my way, ready to protest against unfair criticism of the Future Speaker.

Since I just got home from my twice-a-month poker game (with $76 in winnings in hand) and have to get up in a few hours, I won't say anything in my defense at the moment. But rest assured I have read through the criticism with a careful eye and will respond in full.

A lot of the criticism centered on how I cut off my quotations at the point that seemed to make Russert look best and Pelosi worst. But I think I can make a pretty good case that quoting Pelosi in full just means providing a more detailed commentary on her untenable answers. So that's what you can expect tomorrow.

In the meantime, if you are interested, I recommend reading the full transcript of the Pelosi interview and getting ready for some brouhaha. If you think I was unfair to the Future Speaker, use the space below to highlight specific quotations from her you'd like me to address.

Each time Tim Russert asked a quesiton Pelosi looked stunned, as if she'd just been hit between the eyes and was about to go down. How can a practiced politician go on a national news show and cast slurs on Porter Goss and all motives Republican without even pretending to have evidence? The hubris of the Democrats--who needs information when you have a feeling about something?--will keep them in the bush leagues, polls be damned. Wystan

"Future Speaker" Now that's funny! Or, rather, it's not funny because I think the US would be better off with a divided government, but Pelosi and her ilk are determined to out-stupid and out-craven the Republicans and prevent divided government from happening.

So long as Pelosi is the future speaker, the Democrat's choice for speaker will never drop that qualifier.